This house is very well maintained and taken care of, the attic is very small and very creepy…read more There were plenty of pictures on the wall and axe makings on the walls in certain areas of the house. The tour of the house was definitely nice and I recommend it to people who are very interested or adventurous.

We booked an overnight stay at the Villisca Axe Murder House with a group of coworker friends,…read morewhich was super odd to begin with. But with all its ups and downs, we had a ton of fun overall. We were to meet our guide at the museum in town, but arrived a little early and had a bit of time to look around at the exhibits. The museum had a lot of items from the period when the murders took place - things like old Coke and Pepsi bottles, but none of which were used in any of the murders so we just took a passing glance. We came upon a bucket of old shingle scraps from the original murder house (free for the taking) so that was an interesting piece of the history. We did not take any of these shingle chips, lest we bring something more than memories home with us. Once we met our guide, she was to take us around the area and to the cemetery where the victims are buried, and then to the Axe Murder House where we would spend the night. Since we had a big group and she drove a small Sedan, she just said to follow her in our car and she would point out her window at a few things along the way and then tell us what the pointed-at things meant when we arrived at the cemetery. However, she also had a cigarette she ashed out the window so we weren't sure what was pointing and what was ashing. Just to be clear, I'm not complaining about this - it was hilarious. Our guide imparted to us that she had heard weed-whacking sounds at the cemetery earlier that week, but when she looked around, there was no weed-whacking landscaper to be seen. Needless to say, we were on the lookout for this phantom weed whacker the rest of the experience. We arrived at the main event, and got a quick tour of the barn, cellar, and the house. Inside the house there were a few historical pieces from the Moore family (the victims) such as some clothing laid out on the beds and photos on the walls. Once we were on our own, we ventured into the cellar first. After looking around a bit, a mouse or maybe a stick touched my friend's foot and she screamed, which caused us all to scream. When we found out it was just a mouse/stick, we told her to save her screams for actual ghosts or supernatural sightings. We next went to check out the barn a little closer, and saw that there were some semi-unflattering paintings of the victim's on the wall, along with a previous visitor's warning: "Sh*t went down!" We strolled around the rest of the grounds, which included an outhouse, a little gazebo style pair of benches, and a few other outbuildings. One thing to note here is that this house is not in the middle of nowhere out in a cornfield where you feel isolated and instantly eery - it's in the middle of a neighborhood with neighbors' yards all around, including playsets and bicycles, etc. If you can ignore those, the grounds do feel a little creepy as you walk through them. After our little stroll of the surrounding area, we headed into the house. We sort of just waited around for nightfall and chatted a bit about what we thought we might see once it got dark. We had Casey's Pizza and wine coolers, so we were having a good time while we waited, don't worry. Once night fell, we did walk around the house a little more (with flashlights) to see if any spooky things happened now that it was dark. We did hear a slight tapping/humming noise, but when we went to investigate, it ended up being the old window air conditioner. At this point, we thought we may need to delve deeper to get these spirits to haunt us. Luckily, one of my coworkers brought a crystal which we used to ask the spirits questions (yes or no questions). We decided the crystal swinging one way meant yes and the other way being no. I feel that was kind of arbitrary since we made up the rules of the answering format, but we did get it swinging a little bit to get some possible answers out of those dang ghosts. My other coworker brought an EVP reader and we asked the spirits a few questions (but we didn't get to hear the recordings until the next week, and there were a few little spooky things there, if you increased the volume a ton and could hear a muffled voice kind of saying a few of our names). A handful in our group were getting tired and did not want to sleep in the house, so they headed to their van at this point to hit the hay. The true ghost hunters (me and a few others) stayed up the rest of the night so we didn't miss anything spooky that may pop up. We didn't see anything creepy beyond a wasp's nest in the attic and a suspicious doll we found in one of the bedrooms. The morning came, and even though we didn't have any specific haunting experiences, we did have a ton of fun and did freak each other out a few times, so it was all in all a pretty good time. I would recommend this experience if you have a good group to go with, and a light spirit to not take it too seriously and expect to see Ghostbusters-like apparitions (who knows, maybe YOU will!)

This place is freaking awesome! We are visiting from Denver and I was so excited to visit. It…read moreabsolutely lived up to the hype! There were so many awesome artifacts and each item had its own notecard explaining the story. There were two of us and we used the black light flashlights and a spirit box, and it ran us $96. Price is a bit steep BUT the place was really cool and the staff is incredibly helpful and kind. The manager was giving us lots of stories on the building's history and some of the artifacts he actually helped retrieve! Such a special and fun experience, I can't recommend enough! Thank you, Museum of Shadows!

I REALLY wanted to love this place, as I LOVE all things paranormal, but sadly I was quite…read moredisappointed with this place, purely because of the lack of care and attention to detail. But because of how badly really wanted to love this place, I'm going to leave a super long review with points I really think could benefit you guys if you're open to it, and really help make this place flourish! So Each room we went into was just a big empty room, with a million cluttered artifacts lining the perimeter of each room, complete with the same laminated piece of paper typed up on word, accompanying literally every single item. So if someone wanted to read every single piece of paper in here, I have no doubts it would take AT LEAST 34 hours... And it's unfortunate bc they really did have a ton of awesome items with super interesting stories attached, but everytime you walk a couple more feet around the perimeter, you're again overwhelmed with the sheer amount of clutter/things to read. So I'd really recommend to the staff to try and change the layout of this place. Ideally the rooms would be smaller, so that you aren't overwhelmed by a big empty room. Even just some kind of cheap room dividers that simulate a divided up room would work. And the 2nd biggest recommendation I have would be changing up how you present information. At the very least that means just changing the sizes of the captions you have next to items, like making some of the captions in much bigger frames, and maybe keeping some small ones, there just needs to be more of a variety to keep the scene in front of your more interesting. And maybe don't have soo many captions that were excessively long, like you could sum up the item in just a couple sentences, and then save the entire detailed story about the item just for guided tours or something. Lastly- WHY IN THE WORLD DO YOU NOT LET PEOPLE USE THEIR PHONES? Don't you understand every time someone would take a pic of something in your museum and then post it on social media, that's LITERALLY FREE ADVERTISING for you! Trust me, you're only hurting yourself by not letting ppl share pics of their visit here.

We had a half of a day to kill before our Omaha flight and wanted to see this museum. So glad we…read morewent, the exhibits are very well documented and span the range from missiles and bombs, to drones, bombers, tankers, fighters, helicopters, and lunar modules from WWII onward and even a prototype Artemis lander. Flight simulators, a theater continuously screening space and air related films, and lots of activities for the kids plus some outside exhibits and benches for enjoying the view round out the experience. The entrance to the museum is beautifully constructed with a SR-71 Blackbird hanging from the ceiling. Many of the exhibits were very unique aircraft including a Quail decoy for the B-52 bomber, one of only 2 XF-85 Goblin parasite fighter escorts ever built, an EC-235C Looking Glass lying command center, a B-58A (one of only 6 remaining) mid range bomber which was the first bomber to break Mach II, first to have stellar-inertial nav and first to have a stainless steel honeycomb structure, and the B-36J was really unique with 6 pusher engines plus turbojets - the largest bomber ever built, plus many more items.

This is a gem of a museum and worth the drive to Ashland. The rotating exhibits are a draw, such…read moreas the recent Star Wars fun, but the standing exhibits are worth the visit on their own. We've been here several times over the years and the museum never always looks well maintained and current. Love that Nebraska's astronaut is the current CEO of the museum!

Life as a prisoner is not for me. There's a friendly…read moreattendant at the entrance to guide you and give info annoy the jail. Very interesting especially for my hubby and his friend.

This is a one of a kind place worth visiting. It was a revolving prison that was used from 1885 to…read more1969. It had 3 floors of pie-shaped cells inside a cage. The fourth floor was where the jailer and his family lived. The staff were very nice and knowledgeable about the place. This is not free but your $10 is definitely worth it. Their small gift shop (also were you check in) has shirts, pins, and magnets. This is walking distance from the Union Pacific Railroad Museum which is also another place to see in Council Bluffs.

Apparently a relatively recent rebuild as of this writing, this art museum inhabits a majestic…read morespace. The roads leading to the parking include some counterintuitive one ways and you can (and I did) end up in a dead end, but it's generally not busy enough to prevent you from figuring it out. Entrance is free, with one exhibition being a separate paid ticket. I appreciated a substantial portion of the collection devoted to the Native American peoples of the region and the early expansion of the United States. Having said that, it was also a global collection. I gave myself an hour to view it and had to rush just to get a brief run of the place. Some of the modern art didn't really come off for me, but overall it was a thought-provoking collection. There was also a substantial educational component, with rooms being devoted to what looked like early childhood education and more of a summer camp for older children. The site was well known to everyone I talked to in the city, and clearly a significant local institution, but one worth visiting regardless of where you are from.

The Joslyn Art Museum as always hits it out of the park. Free admission to the main exhibits…read morealways. They also do free admission to the ticketed rotating section monthly (see their website for days/times). I especially love one of the traveling exhibits that is all sewn paper and resembles the ocean. I can't stop coming back to sit with the art! Super baby friendly if anyone needs a great some to stay cool/warm depending on the season while walking around to get your little one to nap . Art for you nap for them it's a win win! Their gift shop is also a really great spot to get a gift! Lots of free parking available. Most of it isnt shaded so pack your windshield shade if it's a hot day!

This museum is free. The gift shop has shirts, magnets, toys, books, and some shirts. I learned a…read morelot about the history of the Union Pacific Railroad and the other earlier train systems in the west. The train models and replica are great. The train driving simulator was nice to try not to mention other interactive displays. This is a well curated museum and is definitely worth visiting.

This a beautiful museum. There's a lot of history to learn about with actual furniture that…read morebelonged to President Lincoln. This is a fun place for people of all ages, including children. There is also some very friendly staff to give you the history and info as you're walking through the three stories of this museum.

Night Lite was SO COOL! I am a huge fan of the Night Lite…read morebecause it's low light, no screaming kids, and a DJ! It was about $20 for a non member and $15 for members!

This is a really fun science museum that is guaranteed to entertain your family. We spent a few…read morehours here on a Thursday in Omaha and my six year old had a blast. Our 16 mo old had fun too, but there is a lot to do for kids between the ages of 5-12. We all had fun walking around learning with some of the exhibits, and the indoor playground upstairs was a big hit. Our toddler even took a little nap while we were there in the comfy chairs upstairs so that was a win for us! Overall it's a new building, filled with fun things to explore, and definitely worth the visit if you're in Omaha. I'd say that especially if you're visiting when it's hot or cold outside this place would be ideal as it's perfectly air conditioned indoors.

Great place for my family and I to make a visit and highly educational! Worth a visit to learn…read moreabout American pioneers and homesteaders as they settled farther west.

When I visited this site, there were about 100 elementary school students having a field trip at…read morethe same time. Talk about chaos! Despite this, the rangers were all very cheerful and able to answer our questions. Daniel Freeman was one of the first people to file a claim under the Homestead Act of 1862, and the NPS site is built on his claim site. The visitor's center is expansive, with two floors. The bottom floor has the lion's share of the exhibits, and even has a window into the preservation arm of the museum where relics are stored. There is also a gift shop on the ground floor. The outside has a prairie with trails, and a small example cabin. The NPS did a good job cramming as much as they could into this site, as even the barb wire surrounding the prairie has different variations to showcase the wire used back then. Don't miss the Homestead Education Center, which is a short drive away from the visitor's center. There's a whole room with old farm equipment, and a small path that goes on a small suspension bridge. Across the Education Center is the the Freeman School, which was closed unless we wanted to call a ranger to open it up. I could peek through the windows though!